Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Solitude

By George Matthew Adams

There isn't a human being who doesn't need solitude - yet there are many who can't appreciate it when they have it.

In the truest sense, however, there can be no real solitude for to make solitude beautiful and full of warmth, there must be something about it to stimulate as well as to heal the tired and restless heart of him or her who would seek it.

Solitude in a hotel room, far from loved ones, is not to be commended, nor is it to be sought.

But solitude "out where the west begins" or amongst the hills and valleys of some sylvan stretch is to feed the soul on honey.

Solitude under a tree by the banks of some running stream, with the scent of wild flowers and the song of wild birds about, and a book in hand emphasizing the makes of some fine grained mind - that is solitude - both to be sought and enjoyed. In solitude we meet ourselves. We are stripped of all glamour and conceit and made to feel our frailty as well as our strength. For there are times when a man gets to himself only to find that he is not the weakling he and others supposed him to be. To spend such time is to enrich all mankind.

It is not surprising that others do not understand us when we misunderstand ourselves so much and so often. Solitude helps us to appraise our own gifts, our own inheritance.

Solitude helps to sweep out the mind, too. The little petty annoyances scamper off for richer booty and the solitary soul is left to feed upon its own treasured gains.

In solitude we gain self-confidence, see our own follies in their tinseled coverings, and are resolved to be better and do better.

Monday, September 10, 2012

There is very little difference between success and failure. But that difference means everything, for it's the difference between belief and unbelief.

Believe—and words may pass!

The man who writes a better book, who builds a better building, who contructs a finer machine, who paints a better picture, than anybody else, is the man who first believes that he can do these things better than they have ever been done before.

Would you wipe out the achievements of a Napoleon or an Edison, or a Schwab, or a Whistler, you would first have to wipe out from the hope canopied heart of each of them their belief in ultimate glory.

For belief is the thing that drives a man to his goal. Tell him that he is not going to win, that the path before him is obstructed, and he will turn on you with eyes flashing like 30-karat diamonds and say to you "But I believe!"

You could wipe away the Rocky mountains easier than you could wipe from the brain of an indomitable man his belief, his faith for winning.

For it is the belief that a man carries within him that spurs him on, that trips up every failure along the way and that leads him with a high head and a straight-faced vision for the thing ahead he is going to see done.

If you want to move mountains, if you want to stamp a city somewhere, or put your character between the pages of history: just believe!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

There is always a beautiful way to say things. Just as there is a beautiful way to act or to build a house or to finish a room.

The lovely character cannot help but give expression to beautiful thoughts that come out into words full of pleasing appeal.

Everyone, upon maturity, has a way of expressing themselves in words. And this way gives you the key to their character. It may be a beautiful or an ugly way that they may have.

But there is always a beautiful way to say everything. Nothing so cuts into one's heart as a mis-spoken word that falls clumsily. Rarely, perhaps, the hurt was meant at all. Nevertheless when a word has gone from the lips, it cannot be recalled. Yours may go, but so long as memory lives, the scar of a mis-spoken word may remain.

It is fine to forgive and forget so far as in your power lies, but to be highly tuned to the receipt of beautiful words from a warm and understanding heart is to own one of the finest gifts God gives to human beings.

The beautiful way of saying things to everybody you know or meet is the only way. The other way wasn't meant at all.

If you can't speak sincerely and well, then don't speak at all. Silence leaves no sad memories.

The happy voice over the telephone, the earyly morning greeting, the first words after separation from your friends—how important to make them full of beauty, vibrant with the soul of you!

Search

Mr. George Matthew Adams

George Matthew Adams was a newspaper columnist, author, writer, philosopher and publisher who founded the Adams Newspaper Service in 1907. He is the author of several books and "You Can" is the most famous of his works.

Mr. Adams became a well-know columnist with his "Today's Talk" which was a kind of short essay he would write for sundry newspapers and had an inspirational appeal for the average American citizen of the time. His syndicate supplied features to many newspapers worldwide for more than fifty years.

Furthermore, it is known that Mr. Adams owned a collection of rare etchings and more than 5000 books, many of them first editions.

Mr. Adams on etchings:

"Etchings early appealed to me because of their intimate character. Some of them seem to have been etched from the heart."

Mr Adams on books:

"I walk all over many of the books I read. Anyone who comes across them after I am through with them will see my tracks. That is, my pencil tracks, which, in reality are the tracks of my mind at it travels through a book."

"I am certain that anything with the word book attached to it will ever be interesting and fascinating to me."

Dr. Frank Crane

"Most of the fear that spoils our life comes from attacking difficulties before we get to them."

Robert Lynd, Essayist

“One of the greatest joys known to man is to take a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge.”

James Allen

"A man is literally what he thinks."

William Feather, Author

"Few of us get anything without working for it."

Walt Mason wrote the introduction of "Up."

GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS

QUOTES BY GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS:

* He who does not get fun and enjoyment out of every day ... needs to reorganize his life.

* If you have nothing else to do, look about you and see if there isn't something close at hand that you can improve! It may make you wealthy, though it is more likely that it will make you happy.

* Note how good you feel after you have encouraged someone else. No other argument is necessary to suggest that never miss the opportunity to give encouragement.

* No matter what our ambition, that ambition must be fed, daily, without a break. Desires vanish quickly, unless they are fed.

* The hero becomes a hero because he put something into the world that we would like to have put there.

* We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves.

* Each day can be one of triumph if you keep up your interests.

* Just be yourself and you will not only be unique in a large way, but you will be an honest expression of a human being.

* Books express much of the personality of the author, so that we often feel we know him, in a rather intimate fashion.

* Devotion to the simple things of life, and to beauty, is what ennobles character and puts a glow to the very countenance. You can always tell from the smile of a person whether there is happiness imbedded in the heart.

* I WISH there were not so many unhappy people in the world. Cheerfulness is power and something that feeds the soul.

* Every human being should be free to choose his own way of life, and select his own sphere of influence, just as long as he does not encroach upon the same individual rights of his fellow man.

* It's what each of us shows, and how, that gives to us character and prestige. Seeds of kindness, goodwill, and human understanding, planted in fertile soil, spring up into deathless friendships, big deeds of worth, and a memory that will not soon fade.

* If love is the greatest thing in the world, then hate is the greatest evil, for hate is the opposite of love. Love attracts, hate repels. Love is life, hate is death. Hate is the worst waste that can enter a human soul.

* If newspapers printed nothing but news, the readers would be sour and depressed.

* It is fine to forgive and forget so far as in your power lies, but to be highly tuned to the receipt of beautiful words from a warm and understanding heart is to own one of the finest gifts God gives to human beings.

* He who understands does not resent. Resentment is the play of little minds.

* It is better to aim for Perfection and miss it, than to aim at Imperfection and hit it.

* Opportunity is kinder to folks than folks are to it. Is it in the cycle of events that a man should not be used too hard, but that chance after chance should be given him to prove his worth—only to allow him to fail after his mettle has proved too unworthy.

* Every one of us, unconsciously, works out a personal philosophy of life, by which we are guided, inspired, and corrected, as time goes on. It is this philosophy by which we measure out our days, and by which we advertise to all about us the man, or woman, that we are. . . . It takes but a brief time to scent the life philosophy of anyone. It is defined in the conversation, in the look of the eye, and in the general mien of the person. It has no hiding place. It's like the perfume of the flower — unseen, but known almost instantly. It is the possession of the successful, and the happy. And it can be greatly embellished by the absorption of ideas and experiences of the useful of this earth.

* Each day of your life, as soon as you open your eyes in the morning, you can square away for a happy and successful day. It's the mood and the purpose at the inception of each day that are the important facts in charting your course for the day. We can always square away for a fresh start, no matter what the past has been. It's today that is the paramount problem always. Yesterday is but history.